He began to be desperately3 afraid of missing her. It was his last chance, perhaps. He would shrink from visiting the house again. There was no horse ahead as he looked toward the store. The hot, sandy yellow road was empty but for a great gasoline truck trundling up the distant rise. He galloped4 down to the creek5, through the shade and steamy dampness of the swamp, and up the slope. Negroes were chopping cotton in the fields under a broiling6 sun; they looked up lazily. A white man overseeing them on horseback waved a salutation to him. There was the usual knot of loafers on the gallery of Ferrell’s store, but Lockwood did not pull up. He rode on to the forking of the road, and looked up the way to Smith’s. The road was shady with a line of water-oaks on its south side, and was entirely7 lacking in life as far as he could see. He stood in the shadow of the trees for a few minutes, then turned back for a quarter mile in the opposite direction, not to look as though he awaited some one. He dawdled8, riding as slowly as possible, and then returned to the corner.
Still no one was visible. He was quite unreasonably9 disappointed, for Louise might not be returning for hours, perhaps not till the cool of the evening. Then, even as he stood irresolute10, he saw a feminine figure on horseback come around a turn of the road in the distance.
He rode slowly to meet her, certain who it must be. From a distance he thought Louise looked startled as she recognized him, but she smiled as she rode up. She was flushed with the heat, and sparkles of perspiration11 stood on her nose.
“I didn’t know you woods riders came away up here,” she laughed. “Is Craig scouting12 for more turpentine?”
“No—no. I had to go up to the store,” Lockwood hesitated. “I had a sort of morning off. I turned into this road for the shade. I was just going back.”
He turned his horse and they moved slowly forward side by side.
“Yes, isn’t it powerfully hot for springtime,” said Louise. “It was cooler when I started.”
“Your father said you’d gone out riding——”
“Did you see papa?” she exclaimed, looking keenly at him. “Did he tell you where I’d gone?”
“Er—not exactly,” Lockwood equivocated13. “I just called in as I passed, you know. By the way, what’s the matter with your father? He didn’t seem exactly cordial.”
“What did he say?”
“Oh, nothing, exactly. There was just a sort of effect of coolness—not his usual manner.”
“I don’t know. You should have asked him,” said Louise carelessly, almost abruptly14, and she urged her horse a little faster.
Lockwood felt rebuffed. There was something wrong, and it had been communicated to Louise. He followed a little behind her, and nothing more was said until they came to the glare of the main road. Lockwood felt desperate as what might be his last chance slipped by.
“You’re not in a hurry to go home. We might ride a little farther, where it’s cooler,” he suggested without hope.
Louise hesitated and looked at her wrist watch.
“I ought to go back before it gets any hotter.” She paused irresolutely15. “Where do you want to go?”
“Anywhere. Up the trail through the pine woods. I don’t think the mosquitoes will bother us.”
Louise cast a somewhat anxious glance down the empty road toward the store, and then turned her horse into the path Lockwood indicated, in silence.
It was a rude wagon16 trail cut diagonally back through the woods toward the river, and the horses trod noiselessly on the deep-packed pine needles. There was not much coolness among the big trees, and Louise commented on the heat again. They discussed the weather conventionally, the woods, the flowers, the run of turpentine gum, with long silences. Lockwood felt tongue-tied and embarrassed and foolish, cursing the evil spell that seemed to have fallen over all his relations with the Power family. Louise was apparently17 willing to ride with him, but she seemed to make it markedly apparent that she had withdrawn18 her intimacy20. They might as well have ridden straight home after all.
The road sagged21 down to a creek-bed, dense22 with titi and bay-trees. Mosquitoes and yellow-flies boiled out of the swamp. A long black snake, frog hunting, shot into the creek like black lightning, and Louise put on speed and splashed through the water and up the slope to higher ground, away from the insects. The trail debouched into another. Lockwood recognized the region where he had encountered Hanna on the first day of his coming.
The air was full of a hot smell of pine gum. It was a poor sort of pleasure ride. Lockwood, in disgust, was several times at the point of proposing to turn back. Louise, saying nothing, swerved23 round into still another trail skirting a ridge24 that ran parallel with the river a few hundred yards away.
Suddenly Louise’s horse shied violently and wheeled half around, jostling into Lockwood’s mount, that recoiled25 back in sympathetic fright.
“Back! Keep back!” Louise called, half laughing, getting her horse under control.
At the edge of the trail ten feet ahead a snake lay in a bunchy heap, a snake four or five feet long perhaps, glossy26 as satin with its spring skin, and with a dull checker-pattern down its back. Its flat head poised27, cold and menacing and motionless, above its huddle28 of coil; and from the middle of the heap its tail stood up vibrating too fast for the eye to follow, with a penetrating29 buzz. The horses shivered, pricking30 their ears forward.
“The first rattler I’ve seen this year,” said Louise. “They’re not as common as they used to be. I don’t believe we can get the horses past it.”
There was really plenty of room beyond the snake’s striking range, but the horses refused to go on. Lockwood looked around for a long pole or a rock, preparing to dismount. He could see no sort of weapon, and he drew the automatic pistol from its holster under his left arm.
“Don’t laugh at me if I make a clean miss,” he apologized in advance.
He had practiced daily for two years with this weapon, but the target was small, and it was really only by a fluke of the greatest luck that he shot the rattlesnake square through its flat head with the first bullet. It flopped31 off the bank out of sight into a hollow in a squirming tangle32.
“What a good shot!” Louise exclaimed. “Tom thinks he’s wonderful with a gun, but I believe he’d have missed that.”
“Just practice,” said Lockwood modestly, concealing33 his own surprise and putting the pistol back.
“I never saw anybody carry a gun like that before,” Louise continued.
She gave him a peculiar34, questioning look, though efficiency in drawing a gun was something that her experience of life must have made familiar.
“You’re not expecting to have to draw it quickly, are you?”
“I never shot anybody in my life, and I never was shot at. But you never can tell,” he returned, edging his still suspicious horse past the place where the snake had lain. He wanted to get off this dangerous subject of pistols.
“I might send a nigger back this evening for that snake,” he suggested. “Would you like its skin for a belt?”
“Not for me, thanks. I don’t——” she began, and stopped.
A man had come out from a bypath into the trail, silently as a wild animal, a few yards in front. He was a white man, shabby and bearded, carrying a shotgun. As he passed the horses he took off his battered35 felt hat respectfully and Louise muttered a curt36 “howdy.” Lockwood caught a glimpse of the great blue powder-mark on the exposed forehead. Louise shook her horse into a fast canter. As Lockwood glanced over his shoulder he saw the riverman standing37 still and gazing after them.
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1
corrupted
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| （使）败坏( corrupt的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）腐化； 引起（计算机文件等的）错误； 破坏 | |
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2
hospitable
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| adj.好客的；宽容的；有利的，适宜的 | |
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3
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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4
galloped
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| （使马）飞奔，奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 )； 快速做[说]某事 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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broiling
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| adj.酷热的，炽热的，似烧的v.（用火）烤（焙、炙等）( broil的现在分词 )；使卷入争吵；使混乱；被烤（或炙） | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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8
dawdled
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| v.混（时间）( dawdle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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9
unreasonably
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| adv. 不合理地 | |
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10
irresolute
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| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
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perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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12
scouting
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| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
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13
equivocated
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| v.使用模棱两可的话隐瞒真相( equivocate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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14
abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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irresolutely
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| adv.优柔寡断地 | |
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wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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17
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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18
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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19
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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21
sagged
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| 下垂的 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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23
swerved
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| v.（使）改变方向，改变目的( swerve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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25
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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26
glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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27
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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huddle
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| vi.挤作一团；蜷缩；vt.聚集；n.挤在一起的人 | |
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29
penetrating
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| adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的 | |
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30
pricking
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| 刺，刺痕，刺痛感 | |
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31
flopped
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| v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的过去式和过去分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅 | |
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32
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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33
concealing
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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34
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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35
battered
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| adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损 | |
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36
curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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37
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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